lashawn04

I've interviewed for what I thought was my dream job and did not get it. I've also interviewed for positions, got rejected, then got an offer after the first choice didn't work out. I have shadowed at a place I thought I would love, and ended the interview process immediately after because I knew I wasn't the right fit. I've also accepted a job that was not in my area of expertise, I thought I would hate but took out of desperation, and ended up loving it and cannot see myself anywhere else.

I have had a patient complaint this year actually. My manager (who I am lucky to have) reads the complaint, checks our notes, then calls us in for our side of the story. She then speaks to the patient. The complaint against me came back as unfounded. I have never been suspended pending an investigation. As far as the controlled substance issue with the other coworker, she should have turned around and returned that medication, not wait until the next day to do it.

I made the mistake of working for a for profit hospice agency. We were told to chart decline only and did not offer therapy services. One nurse reported a family to Adult Protective Services and our manager was livid. She called a mandatory meeting stating all reports of abuse go through her first for approval to report to APS in order to "manage our bottom line". I quit after three weeks. I needed a job bad too. But if you stand for nothing, you fall for anything. I received my dream job a month later. Good job advocating for the patient.

I will admit that I have Bipolar type I disorder. I could care less about the stigma because 1. I am a darn good nurse & 2. It was such a relief to finally have my illness diagnosed. I am an advocate for mental health recognization & treatment especially since 3 of my family members committed suicide (2 of them, my grandparents, of a murder- suicide when my mother was a child). I have been a victim of domestic violence for 10 years & on 08/15/2010 I said enough, took my children, loaded my truck & drove over 600 miles to my mother's house. That in itself, along with receiving a diagnosis, beginnning treatment, & becoming active in church has helped me out a lot. As far as being a nurse with mental illness, heck that coupled with the emotional, physical, verbal, & financial abuse/control my job was my therapy. No matter how rough my day/night was at work, it was nothing compared to the hell I endured at home. My children & I are safe, mommy has more happy days, & my husband, who would make me work 2-3 jobs to support his lifestyle is 600+ miles away & refuses to communicate with me. I couldn't be happier. I hope all the best for all of you.

OP: Im so sorry to laugh. Its just that you took the words out of my mouth. Your issues are one of the reasons why I made the decision that if I ever, & I mean ever go back as a staff nurse in a hospital it would be for night shift. It can still get crazy but at less intervals. Take care of yourself first. You only have one body. Find a way to unwind & reflect why you became a nurse to begin with. Best wishes. I'll be rooting for you.

I graduated in the 4 year regular program & that was intense in itself. You must stay focused & take advantage of the learning opportunities. One thing about Mt. Carmel is that you are not a # & the teachers really take pride in what they do. I don't know too many schools where you can walk past the deans office & wave hi & they call you in the office 2 ask how things are going. I applied for the advanced placement program (not second degree, two different programs) but didn't get in b/c my gpa was low with my first degree. I finished Mt. Carmels traditional program with over a 3.0 gpa while having three children & working. Kudos to those those who succeed in the 2nd degree program you must be strong to survive. I like Mt. Carmel so much I'm applying for the Masters program

I had a manager that was very ill fitted for the position they had. While I have only been a nurse for 2 years my other employment experience has taught me to always stand up for whats right but there is a point where you sit back & watch management hang themselves. This particular manager was good for making staff members lives unbearable until they just become no shows & keeping those there who were endangering patients. My last 2 weeks were very tense, however I refuse to do anything to be determined not rehirable. Well, about 6 months later a patient abuse case arised & management were accused of covering it up. The administrator, DON, & ADON were terminated. Be proud of yourself for finding another job that you will enjoy. Im pretty sure the employees left there know the avenues to take to report this manager.

Hello, I was in the same situation as you, wanting to be an OR nurse after graduation. I shadowed in th OR & PACU numerous times, but the hospitals I applied to only wanted experienced nurses. Now, 2 years later with med/surg experience I have an interview for an OR nurse position. I'm stating this because sometimes things you desire so greatly will take time. Not saying you will not get a position in the OR after graduating, but if not, make the position you do get a learning tool for things to come. Best wishes

I agree w/ the previous post. I'm a new grad too, graduated in July, and we was told never to mention incident report in the patient's chart. Since the doc wrote that order, it will be a part of the patient's medical record. After seeing that order I (personally) would have sought the advice of my charge nurse to see specifically what the doc wanted in regards to that IR order. Don't feel bad about filling one out, I just had to fill one out too.

I graduated back in July and had been applying for jobs since OSU had the RN internships posted in Nov 07 and never got a call back. The sad thing is that I worked for a hospital there while in school. One hospital gave a new grad a nurse educator position because there weren't any staff RN positions available. I moved to Virginia Beach instead. Now I have travel fever! After I get my master's here I think I'm going to Atlanta. Maybe in the FAR future I'll go back to Ohio

Get this- I wanted to take the ACLS course that my job was offering but was told by the education department that I would have to get permission from my nurse manager because I work in an area that does not require ACLS skills (oncology/ med surg). Nethertheless, I asked my nurse manager who said, "Why do you want to get that!?". After I told her because I wanted to have that exxtra training, she said no because I don't need it. Therefore, I'll be paying for it to get it. Not mad about that, but I thought if you wanted to better yourself you would get some positive feedback from the manager.

They told me something totally different, they emphasized how the $$ wll be on my first check. I do remember them saying that the offer they were giving me was for BSN grads relocating from another state. Oh well, I didn't accept a job with them anyway.

I heard the same thing! I stopped trying for OSU when I received my bachelors from there and wanted to return for nursing and was declined. I'll receive my BSN from Mount Carmel this July. I love the school! I mean, every place has their issues but I feel that I have received a great education from Mount Carmel.

I'm relocating from Ohio and accepted a position at Riverside Regional Methodist Hospital for $20.28/hr 7a-7p on the oncology unit. This will be my first job as an RN. Sentara offered me a job @ $19.60/hr but I didn't take it. Chesapeake General said $19.38/hr but their shift diff is $8 (I think). Sentara offers up to $15000 tutition reimbursement for new BSN grads relocating to the area and a $2000 relocation expense. FOr that $15000 you have to commit for 3 years. It can be prorated though if you only wanted to do 1 or 2 years. RRMH offered $7500 for 18mo commitment but its a sign on bonus so its taxed (tuition reim. aren't taxed). Hope that helps- :loveya:

I totally agree. I grew up in a household where my father shot anything up his veins that he thought would make him high and my mother was soooo in love that she basically ignored it and look at me, about to graduate with my BSN in July and my little sis is the District Manager of a supermarket chain in our area. I on't have any hard feelings towards my parents but it made me a better person which is good in this profession, my father has a PhD in Political Science, so I know that before the drugs there was a successful person in there, so, I feel I'm not as judgemental as I may have been if I didn't have these experiences.

PRICELESS

I'm a PCA on a Pediatric Hem/Onc/BMT unit and there have been two occassions (different teens) who were caught having sex in their Bone Marrow Transplant rooms. BOTH TIMES, the mothers of the teens got mad when social work and the attending went in there to talk to them about it. I mean, not only is it nasty, but your immune system is depleted and you decide to do the nasty. The mothers both stated that the teens are "grown" and we had no right to address the issue. Oh well... Another occassion is when the parents do not make their 4 y/o put on clothes. They want her to be comfortable so she runs around stark naked. There have been multiple times when this kid has ran down the halls like this. Not to mention that mom blows on her implantofix and she has to caress the nanny's boob before she goes to bed. Oh..the parents sleep in the same bed as their naked kid. Things that make you go hummm....

Update- i received a letter of apology from the assistant dean and the course coordinator and the clinical instructor that basically was useless to me will no longer be teaching there after this semester. The assistant dean reviewed my care plans and said that there was nothing wrong with them (with the exception of the one I messed up d/t me being overwhelmed) at which she said that ALL nurses make some mistakes and it does not mean that I will not be a bad nurse. She also gave me I guess what you would call a "verbal quiz" on care plans and let's just say I passed with flying colors. The only issue left was that she cannot force the teachers to change the grade so I would have to appeal, there was one more openingg for the course that started the following term (we are on semesters but our clinical courses are in 8 week sessions) and with all the other students that failed this clinical d/t care plans they took the openings that was available next semester. I put my pride to the side and am taking the course now. I was really happy and surprised that I received those apology letters. The good thing is that I will get an A and since I already have a 3.2GPA and my other class is easy as pie I will have a 4.0 this semester!!! The bad thing is now I won't graduate until July 08, oh well....

Here is the update, I went to the preliminary hearing today (basically following the steps before I file an appeal) and was told by these three instructors that on the first day of clinical they did give a careplan rubric to the 1st term senior students and the reason why they failed me was because I never did anything based on the rubric. Here's the problem about this statement: I WASN'T THERE FOR THE FIRST FOUR WEEKS!:angryfire The course coordintor scheduled all my community experiences in the first 4 weeks, I did not get to the clinical unit until the 5th week, and no one gave me a rubric. Did any of these teachers take me to the side and say, "I know you have had your community experiences so lets go over what is expected of you in this clinical"? No, why? Because one teacher thought that the other teacher did it, AND the rubrics were all gone, so they ASSUMED that the last one was given to me by SOMEONE. Man I was more angry when I left that meeting, I let all of those teachers have it, and our dean was very vocal in how disappointed she was that unorganization is the sole reason why I was failed in this course. Thinking more into this, when I was constantly bugging these teachers for help with these care plans, NONE of them even thought to pull out this so- called rubric? I never knew there was a rubric until this meeting. It would be an understatement to say that I am highly pissed. Now, I have to wait and see if the teachers are going to change their minds about failing me or if I have to actually file an appeal. Thanks for listening.

No!!! The instructor told me to use infection. I used Risk for instead. I do think that I need to review the nursing process though. I will definately check out the links you gave me. I really appreciate your timely response.

Thank you. The problem is that I really didn't get any direction. I received comments such as, "I need senior level work" or, "elaborate more". Even speaking to the teachers face to face didn't help. Now I have to admit that on the last care plan I made a huge mistake, which they stated showed that I did not know the nursing process. The first care plan for that week I had Impaired skin integrity ( I don't remember the R/T) the AEB was the two surgical procedures the patient had and I also don't remember the other two AEB. The last clinical instructer stated that she feels that I got an unsatisfactory from the other teacher because my interventions and rationales leaned more toward the infection diagnosis. Her exact words was, "I would write Infection secondary to inpaired skin integrity R/T the surgical procedures, abcess, and temperature off 100.4". Well, there is no nursing diagnosis for Infection, because that is a medical diagnosis, so I used Risk for Infection (although my patient had an infection) and everything else my teacher said. Well, I dinged on that one too because I listed a "slew of AEB" (her exact words), which is not appropriate for a Risk diagnosis. I believe that I was so frustrated over the whole ordeal that I really did not think of what the teacher was sayiing when she gave the advice. And since I am always told to write more, I just listed everything I could think of about the patient, to make the care plan satisfactory. What made me more furiious was that the other instructor said that the first care plan (Impaired Skin integrity) was fine. Sorry if this is too long.

:oI am so depressed. I have never had an issue with my careplans until I get to my pediatric rotation and on the last day of class i was called to my teacher's office and was told that I failed the course because of my care plans. Now I have to appeal the grade, and I am praying that it goes into my favor. I have a 84% in the course and I was "exceptional" in the clinical component (per my instructors) but they feel that I should not graduate until I can master these care plans. I have redone these care plans over and over, consulting with these teachers a total of 6 times, but when they all tell you something different and you don't know which one will be grading your care plan, it gets pretty overwhelming. I went to multiple teachers who have taught at the school for years and they said that my careplans were fine. Everyone is saying that I will win the appeal, but there is still a great deal of fear inside me, for I am to graduate in may 2008. Has anyone ever heard of students failing a course over a careplan? Other teachers at the school state that this is unheard of. ANY recommendations you can provide will be greatly appreciated.